[Tfug] Microsoft's Mad Anti-Piracy Campaign

[Angus Scott-Fleming]

Amusing .... and a victory for Free Unix ...

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-- Microsoft's Mad Anti-Piracy Campaign --

Pulitzer-prize-winning investigative journalist Byron Acohido, 
who writes for USA Today, has written at least two stories 
lately that reveal some of the tactics that Microsoft is 
employing (along with product activation) to stop software 
piracy and/or force companies to adopt its new licensing 
schemes.  

According to a February 27, 2003, USA Today story by Acohido, 
the well- known maker of guitar strings, Ernie Ball Inc., was 
slapped by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) with a $90,000 
fine for using eight unlicensed copies of Microsoft Office on 
the firm's 80 personal computers. Microsoft, which co-founded 
the BSA, then made an example of Ernie Ball. It mailed a 
letter to businesses containing a news clipping about the 
Ernie Ball fine, warning them that they too could face similar 
fines.  

The Ernie Ball company paid the $90,000, but it wiped all 
traces of Microsoft Windows and Office off its PCs and 
switched to open-source software. Can you blame them?  

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-02-26-desktop_x.htm  


--
Angus Scott-Fleming
GeoApps, Tucson, Arizona
http://www.geoapps.com/   
1-520-290-5038 / fax 1-208-248-3124
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